Changing Union Representation Election Voting Regimes: What Can We Learn?

2015 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Steven E. Abraham ◽  
Lisa A. Schur ◽  
Paula B. Voos
Keyword(s):  
Representation Election ◽  
Union Representation

Do Union Organizers Matter? Individual Differences, Campaign Practices, and Representation Election Outcomes

ILR Review ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas F. Reed
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
Demographic Characteristics ◽  
Representation Election ◽  
General Hypothesis ◽  
Union Representation ◽  
Survey Questionnaires

Although many studies have investigated the determinants of union representation election outcomes, none has examined union organizers' influence on those outcomes. Based on a literature review and interviews with the directors of organizing of eight unions, the author of this study hypothesizes that certain personal characteristics of organizers are associated with success in organizing campaigns. An analysis of survey questionnaires completed by 64 organizers supports the general hypothesis that some personal and demographic characteristics of organizers affect both the percentage of pro-union votes and election outcomes.

Not so exceptional? Prosocial influences on union support among US workers

2021 ◽  
pp. 0143831X2199009
Author(s):  
Jack Fiorito ◽  
Irene Padavic
Keyword(s):  
Organized Labor ◽  
Social Benefits ◽  
Representation Election ◽  
Substantial Influence ◽  
Union Democracy ◽  
The Social ◽  
Union Representation ◽  
Union Support ◽  
Conditions Of Employment ◽  
Policies And Practices

US unions have often been characterized as ‘exceptional’ in their weakness and conservatism compared to their Western European counterparts. American organized labor is associated with a ‘business unionism’ philosophy that assumes American workers are only pragmatic and materialistic, seeing their unions as vehicles for improving the terms and conditions of employment at their workplaces. Such an analysis omits the potential power of a belief that unions work to improve society. Applying an experimental vignette design based on a survey of over 1000 employed persons, this article examines whether ‘workplace instrumentality’ is the only motivation for workers to support unions. The authors consider the likelihood of voting yes in a union representation election to test the efficacy of two less studied predictors – perceiving unions as positively influencing society and perceiving them as facilitating workers’ voice in union policies and practices. Logistic regression shows that the most influential beliefs associated with union support were that unions improve terms and conditions of employment for represented workers (‘union instrumentality’), that unions positively influence society (‘prosocial unionism’), and that unions offer workers substantial influence on union policies and practices (‘worker say’). Researchers and union organizing campaigns should consider devoting greater attention to the social benefits of unionism and to union democracy.

Individual Unionization Decisions: A Multilevel Model of Cost-Benefit Influences

2003 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 142-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Mellor ◽  
R. James Holzworth ◽  
James M. Conway
Keyword(s):  
Multilevel Model ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Relative Importance ◽  
Representation Election ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Contextual Variable ◽  
Union Representation ◽  
Decision Frame ◽  
Election Results ◽  
Perceived Costs

Abstract. An important part of the unionization process is predicting the individual’s vote for or against union representation. We proposed and tested a multilevel model based on the relative importance of costs and benefits of representation. Regression statistics from within-person analyses were used to show the influence of perceived costs and benefits on judgment policies about intent to vote in a representation election. Using these statistics as outcome variables, between-person analyses were used to show the influence of decision frame on cost-benefit influences, in which framing a vote as one for or against the union was conceived as a contextual variable in an election. Results were used to extend prior unionization research and to suggest how employers and unions may attend to framing effects in an election.

The Influence of Attitudes and Normative Pressures on Voting Decisions in a Union Certification Election

ILR Review ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 262-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Ruth Montgomery
Keyword(s):  
Important Determinant ◽  
Public University ◽  
Representation Election ◽  
Clerical Workers ◽  
Normative Pressure ◽  
Union Representation ◽  
Certification Election ◽  
Voting Decisions ◽  
Management Staff ◽  
Voting Intentions

This paper investigates how both attitudes and normative pressures influenced the voting decisions of public university clerical workers in a December 1984 union representation election. Not surprisingly, the voters' attitudes, shaped by the results they expected to follow from union certification and their evaluation of those results as good or bad, appear to have been an important determinant of voting intentions and, in turn, actual votes. Also influential, although less so, was normative pressure, a function of how the voters thought others (family, co-workers, other clericals, supervisors, and other management staff) wished them to vote and how strongly they were inclined to satisfy those wishes.

scholarly journals GTE Union Organization A Case Study

2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 81-90
Author(s):  
Russell K. Baker
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
Representation Election ◽  
Final Phase ◽  
Labor Management ◽  
Union Representation ◽  
Term Labor

On November 19, 1993 the following notice was sent to the office of the general manager of GTE Supply Company in Tampa, Florida:Gentlemen:A petition for certification as collective bargaining representative of certain of your employees has been filed with this office, pursuant to the Labor Management Relations Act, as amended. A copy of the petition is enclosed. Should you desire further information before a Board Agent communicates with you, telephone or write the office to which the case is being assigned, referring to the above case name and number" (United States of America, 1993).This letter was the beginning of the final phase of long-term labor unrest at GTE Supply. The labor conflict began over five years earlier, and culminated in a third union representation election in January 1994.

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